Four weeks into the school year, Susan Fitz, principal of Bren Mar Park Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va., wrote the parents of children in one fourth-grade class to inform them that according to the new federal No Child Left Behind law, their children's teacher wasn't "highly qualified."

No one complained or even asked questions, Ms. Fitz says, but one parent did send a letter to the teacher to say, "We love you. Don't worry about this."

When Congress passed the ambitious new education law two years ago this month, one of its goals was to improve instruction by ridding classrooms of teachers who didn't know enough about the subjects they taught.

But Congress charged the states with the job of defining what a good teacher is -- and allowed each state to define it differently. As a result, when the states made their first teacher-quality reports to the U.S. Education Department this fall, Virginia reported that 80% of its classes are taught by highly qualified teachers, and around the country, the numbers are even higher.

Wisconsin reported that 98% of its classes are taught by highly qualified teachers, Arkansas reported 97%, and Florida reported 91%. James Warford, Florida's schools chancellor, insists that 91% is "pretty close" to being accurate -- "91% have the potential to be good," he adds.

No Child Left Behind requires that all teachers must be "highly qualified" by 2006, and that meanwhile, schools like Bren Mar Park that receive federal poverty funds must tell parents if their children are being taught by a teacher who falls short. But the law gives little advice on what makes a good teacher.

It says only that teachers must hold a bachelor's degree -- in any subject -- and a state teaching license, and demonstrate "content knowledge" in the subject they teach. Nationwide, University of Pennsylvania education professor Richard Ingersoll figures 44% of middle-school classes are assigned to teachers who don't have either a college major or minor in the subject they're teaching.

But licensure requirements vary widely from state to state, which means that the definition of "highly qualified" does too. In 23 states, teachers don't need a college degree in the subject they teach, and in seven of those, including Washington and Kansas, they also don't need to pass a competency exam in their subject -- which means they can teach math, for example, without ever proving they know anything about it.

To get a license, three-quarters of the states require their teachers to pass standardized reading, writing and math tests that Educational Testing Service, which writes some of the tests, says are set at about a 10th-grade achievement level. But the states each set the passing score on their tests, and the federal Education Department says that a prospective teacher has to score at only the 20th percentile to pass the reading test in Ohio -- which means that 80% of those who took the test scored higher. The passing score is even lower in Pennsylvania, and none of the states requires teachers to score as high as the 50th percentile. Meanwhile, North and South Dakota, among others, don't require teachers to take any test at all to get a teaching certificate.

Fairfax County, Va., which has 19,000 teachers, notified parents that only 25 of them didn't meet the No Child Left Behind requirements, and it says most of those only needed to pass their tests to clear the bar. Bren Mar Park's Ms. Fitz says her not-highly-qualified fourth-grade teacher passed a standardized test in Pennsylvania, but the score wasn't high enough to allow her to teach in Virginia.

Congress also left it to the states to decide how teachers could demonstrate they know their subjects. New teachers must pass a "rigorous" state test, the law says. Veteran teachers can also take the test, but the teachers unions view a mandatory test as an indignity and successfully lobbied Congress to let states come up with alternatives. In Maryland, for example, teachers next year will be able to pass the No Child Left Behind bar by accumulating points based on their college grades and whether they gave a speech at a national convention or taught a college course, among other things.

The Education Department hasn't raised public objections to the states' glowing teacher-quality reports, even though it did a massive survey of teachers in 2000 that raises doubts about the reports' accuracy. In an analysis of that survey, the Education Trust, an advocacy group based Washington, D.C., found that 30% of Ohio's high-school classes were taught by teachers who didn't have even a minor in the subject they were teaching. That number rose to 42% in schools with lots of poor kids. But in its teacher-quality report to the department this year, Ohio said that 82% of its classes are taught by highly qualified teachers.

Connecticut reported this fall that 96% of its classes are taught by highly qualified teachers. But the teacher survey found that 37% of the classes in Connecticut's high-poverty high schools are taught by teachers who don't have even a minor in their field. And Idaho told the education department that all but 1% of classes in its high-poverty schools were taught by highly qualified teachers, but the teacher survey found that 46% of Idaho's high-poverty high-school classes were taught by teachers without even a minor in their subject.

An additional problem with the law's teacher requirements is that they aren't likely to weed out bad teachers, even as they identify some as not highly qualified. The law is "asking the wrong question" by looking at degrees and tests scores rather than how well teachers teach, says Jerry Weast, superintendent of the Montgomery County, Md., schools.

Mr. Weast's 140,000-student district put 111 of its 12,000 teachers on notice this year to improve their teaching or find another job. But because most of those teachers hold advanced degrees and state certification, all but about a dozen of them are considered highly qualified under No Child Left Behind. Montgomery County sent out not-qualified letters on only one teacher this fall, and she was a part-timer.

The states' high teacher-quality pass rates haven't stopped the teachers, school districts or states from complaining about the law, though. The National Education Association, the largest teachers union, is already talking about an appeals process and threatening court action. And at an education conference in Orlando last month, governors from Michigan and Montana even tried to wheedle Florida Gov. Jeb Bush into lobbying the president for changes in the law.

Rural states say their small, isolated schools have trouble hiring teachers as it is, and often have to double up assignments to stay within budget -- a combined math and science teacher, for example. If those teachers need certificates in both subjects, says Montana Gov. Judy Martz, "I think we'll lose some of them" to other states.

States with hard-to-staff inner-city schools, fast-growing populations or chronic teacher shortages are also complaining. In Maryland, which produces 2,500 new teachers a year but needs 11,000, 15% of the teachers are on so-called conditional credentials, which means they haven't finished the courses or tests they need for accreditation. Ron Peiffer, the deputy state superintendent, says that most of those are in the state's two most troubled districts and are the only teachers they can find.

WELL VERSED?

The percentage of classes that states report are taught by 'highly qualified' teachers.

STATE HIGHLY QUALIFIED
California 48.00%
Connecticut 96
Florida 91.1
Indiana 96.2
Maryland 64.5
Massachusetts 96
Michigan 95
Missouri 94.7

Sources: U.S. Education Department